To return to your first question, there is solidarity between producers, and that solidarity guides the Union des producteurs agricoles du Québec. We have solidarity with the western producers. We are part of the same Canadian federation. It’s also a question of principle. There is a law that states that the future and destiny of an organization like the Canadian Wheat Board must be debated and decided by the producers. If they decide to put an end to the single desk, that’s their decision.
That’s how things work in our industry. For a joint plan to be adopted, it needs 66% of the vote. Not 50% plus one, 66%. If we want to implement a collective marketing plan—for example, a joint plan for strawberry production—it needs 66% of the vote. The Farm Products Marketing Act, which came into force in 1957, states that it has to happen this way, and we support this.
Organized collective marketing has effectively suffered a breach. We wonder what the next step will be. This doesn’t only affect supply management. We use collective marketing for many production lines, including potatoes, apples and pork, among others. This is a great concern for us. Know that many buyers would love to see freedom of choice, so that they can call the shots. We have a lot of statistics to back up our point. For example, when we started electronic auctions in the pork sector in 1989, we noted that the difference in prices paid to Quebec producers compared with American producers was about $25 per 100 kilograms. After the auctions started, we saw that our prices caught up to those of the Americans. So you can see the advantages that can arise out of collective marketing.
Again, it will be up to the western producers to debate this point against those who in favour of these advantages. In our opinion, we are convinced that there is an advantage. There are large farmers within the pork sector in Quebec. Initially, they were very skeptical and thought that because they had high production volumes, they would get the best prices. However, these producers realized that they would get a better price by regrouping all of the production and collectively negotiating with buyers. That’s what happened.